Abstract
Recent models of emotion recognition suggest that when people perceive an emotional expression, they partially activate the respective emotion in themselves, providing a basis for the recognition of that emotion. Much of the focus of these models and of their evidential basis has been on sensorimotor simulation as a basis for facial expression recognition – the idea, in short, that coming to know what another feels involves simulating in your brain the motor plans and associated sensory representations engaged by the other person’s brain in producing the facial expression that you see. In this review article, we argue that simulation accounts of emotion recognition would benefit from three key extensions. First, that fuller consideration be given to simulation of bodily and vocal expressions, given that the body and voice are also important expressive channels for providing cues to another’s emotional state. Second, that simulation of other aspects of the perceived emotional state, such as changes in the autonomic nervous system and viscera, might have a more prominent role in underpinning emotion recognition than is typically proposed. Sensorimotor simulation models tend to relegate such body-state simulation to a subsidiary role, despite the plausibility of body-state simulation being able to underpin emotion recognition in the absence of typical sensorimotor simulation. Third, that simulation models of emotion recognition be extended to address how embodied processes and emotion recognition abilities develop through the lifespan. It is not currently clear how this system of sensorimotor and body-state simulation develops and in particular how this affects the development of emotion recognition ability. We review recent findings from the emotional body recognition literature and integrate recent evidence regarding the development of mimicry and interoception to significantly expand simulation models of emotion recognition.
Highlights
Emotion recognition is key to successful social interactions
The central idea of these models is that when we observe a facial expression of emotion, we can recognize the emotion by simulating the motor plans and associated sensory representations engaged by the other person’s brain in producing the expression
An alternative explanation is that the act of making the expression itself generates in the observer the corresponding emotional state, but we will argue that the majority of evidence indicates that primarily motor matching is the effect of simulation rather than the cause of simulation
Summary
Emotion recognition is key to successful social interactions. To date, much of the research into perceiving emotions in others has been conducted using the face, which is arguably the most salient portrayer of social signals that we possess. An alternative explanation is that the act of making the expression itself generates in the observer the corresponding emotional state, but we will argue that the majority of evidence indicates that primarily motor matching is the effect of simulation rather than the cause of simulation This line of argument is not, necessarily inconsistent with the reframing of the James-Lange theory that we noted above; it could be seen to be more consistent with it, giving (representations of) internal bodily states (as opposed to representations of expressive motor movements and their sensory consequences) a more central role. We know that does emotional contagion occur when the stimulus is not consciously perceived, and that unseen expressions evoke faster facial reactions (Tamietto et al, 2009) This unconscious body-state simulation account of emotion perception has, to date, been relegated to a somewhat subsidiary role in simulation models. There are studies looking at various forms of mimicry due to sensorimotor simulation, but solely based on observing emotional body stimuli
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